White Trash Zombie Unchained (White Trash Zombie 6)

I plopped down beside her and took her hand. “Your mother has been removed from power, and you’ll be able to see Andrew again soon. He’ll make sure of it.”

She sniffled and swiped at her eyes. “It’s like waking up from a nightmare. I’m not sure if it’s real or not.”

“Aww. It’s for real, babe.” I gave her hand a squeeze. “The bad shit is behind you, and your brother is ready to mend fences.”

“Everything’s falling into place for the zombies, too.” She stole a glance at me. “You know what we need since we’re at the beginning of a whole new era?” A sly smile tugged at her mouth.

“Chocolate?”

“Ice cream, silly!” she said then widened her eyes.

Together we shouted, “Chocolate ice cream!”

We raced to the lab’s kitchen and spent the next half hour eating chocolate fudge ice cream, talking, and laughing. It felt gooooood.

Once we’d stuffed ourselves sick, she gave me a hug and left for her security shift. I wiped ice cream off my chin then made my way to the Head Room to change out the nutrient goo.

Humming, I put in my code, pulled the door open, and stepped in.

Dr. Nikas loomed in the semi-darkness beside the empty regrowth tank, one hand gripping his temples between fingers and thumb as if he had a headache.

I started to ease out of the room.

“Angel,” he said. “Stay.”

I slowly closed the door behind me. “Is something wrong?”

He lowered his hand. “Take a look in Adam Campbell’s vat.”

I peered through the glass lid into the crockpot of nutrient snot and its resident head. All seemed normal in a grey-skinned, severed head, horror show sort of way. “I don’t—” Then I saw it: a little bud about the size of a jellybean sprouting from the neck stump. Just like with Kang’s head. “He’s regrowing! What changed?”

“Everything.” Dr. Nikas put his arm around my shoulders and gazed down into the vat with me. “I spent this past week reviewing what we recovered, and what I stole, of Kristi’s immortality work. She wasn’t as close to a solution as she’d believed, but the direction of her research sparked a fresh line of thought, and I tested a new nutrient formulation on Adam. I discovered the progress only moments before you walked in.”

“That’s awesome!” I paused. “It is awesome, right? I mean, when I walked in you looked upset.”

“Upset, no. I was a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of the implications.” He gave my shoulders a squeeze and stepped away from the vat. “This discovery opens untried research paths. The way isn’t clear yet, but I see the potential, the end result. Not with development of a brain substitute—which I have determined would never healthily maintain the parasite—but a way to quasi-mature zombies so the amount of brains required for sustenance would be greatly reduced.”

My smile grew. “Like how you and Pierce and Kang need a lot less brains. That’s brilliant.”

“Research and development will likely take years, but I am certain it can be achieved.” He shook his head. “I wonder how Dr. Charish would feel if she knew her legacy was not immortality for herself, but the trigger for a long-term lifeline for zombies.”

“She would hate it from the very depths of her cold, black, shriveled heart.”

“W

hat a tragedy.” He sighed. “If she had been open and honest with her findings rather than the cruel egoist she was, such marvels we could have accomplished.”

“Yeah, but you’re the real foundation of all this. You just need people around to spark your genius and keep you on your toes.”

He gave me a warm smile. “Like you.”

“Me?” I laughed. “I won’t argue with the keeping you on your toes part, but I’m not much of an intellectual spark.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Angel. You grasp concepts readily and often see solutions others may not.”

I blinked. “I do?”

“Look at all you have accomplished over the past year and a half, the scrapes you’ve wriggled out of, the clever ideas you’ve put forth. You even keep Pierce honest, and that is no mean feat.”